A man struck gold, metaphorically, while eating lunch at a New York restaurant. New Jersey resident Rick Antosh, 66, was having an oyster pan roast at the Grand Central Oyster Bar and Restaurant in New York when he bit into something hard.

‘I just all of a sudden felt something like a tooth or a filling and it’s terrifying,’ Antosh told PIX11, reports ndtv.com.

What he had found was not a tooth or a filling, but a precious pearl!

‘And then holy c***, I realized it’s not a tooth, it’s a pearl,’ he said.

Mr Antosh put the pearl in his pocket and took it home. After going back, he called the restaurant to ask how often something like this happens.

‘I got the floor manager and asked how often does this happen,’ Antosh told PIX11. ‘And he said I’ve never heard of that happening yet,’ he added.

According to New York Post, executive chef of Grand Central Oyster Bar & Restaurant Sandy Ingber said that in his 28 years at the restaurant, this was only the second time that a diner found a pearl in his meal. ‘It’s extremely rare, so that makes it interesting and exciting,’ he said.

The pearl was found by Mr Antosh in a meal that costs $14.75. Though it hasn’t been appraised for value yet, experts say it could be worth anywhere between $2,000 to $4,000.

‘That was by far the best oyster pan roast I ever ordered,’ says Mr Antosh.